1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to batteries requiring forced flow of electrolyte and, more particularly, to a novel manifold design for the inlet and outlet of such a battery which results in more uniform distribution of the flow of electrolyte through the battery, thus providing longer battery life.
2. Background Art
Forced electrolyte flow batteries are employed, for example, to provide power to electrical equipment in underwater environments, in which batteries the electrolyte is seawater pumped between the plates of the batteries.
One battery for use in such applications is the magnesium/silver chloride battery. The battery consists of a number of cell plates closely stacked in parallel with electrolyte entering via an inlet manifold, flowing past the plates through the inter-plate spaces, and exiting via an outlet manifold. In such a battery, it is critical that the corrosion products generated by the electrochemical reaction be removed from the narrow inter-cell spaces. If this is not done, clogging will result and the battery no longer will be able to deliver power, resulting in a shortened battery life. To ensure that such corrosion products are removed, the seawater electrolyte is forced past the plates from bottom to top in order to complement the natural upward flow of the hydrogen gas which is produced along with the aforementioned corrosion products as a by-product of the electrochemical reaction.
It has been found that simply providing inlet and outlet electrolyte manifolds of constant cross-section has the disadvantage that, with such manifolds, some of the battery cells receive very little flow and some even experience reverse flow (top to bottom). As a consequence, cells experiencing poor electrolyte flow develop clogging and, as a result of such clogging, expected battery life is not achieved. Furthermore, it is found that there is turbulence in various sections of the flow path and this turbulence contributes to the nonuniform distribution of electrolyte flow.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide means to improve the distribution of electrolyte flow in forced electrolyte flow batteries.
It is a further object of the invention to provide such means that can be easily and economically constructed.
Other objects of the present invention, as well as particular features, elements, and advantages thereof, will be elucidated in, or be apparent from, the following description and the accompanying drawing figures.